Do what you enjoy, delegate the rest

To my mind, you should do what you enjoy and delegate the rest. If you find accounts or handling routine correspondence boring, delegate it. Get rid of all the work in your business that saps your energy and robs you of enjoyment. You’ll feel happier and you’ll have a more positive outlook. This will rub off on clients too. Contrast that to your frustration when faced with a pile of paperwork. You may become a little bit “snappy” with clients, not a good thing at all.

Every job comes with work that you don’t enjoy and there are parts of your job that you should do yourself, whether you like the work or not. But you can make your work more enjoyable by mostly doing what you enjoy.

What should an IT consultant delegate?

Consider delegating the following areas:

• Accounts – use a popular computerised package. That way you will find it easier to get someone with the necessary skills in that package.

• Chasing up debts – like it or not, many businesses will pay you as late as possible. Getting your assistant to chase up debts keeps your dealings with a client as sweet as possible. There’s’ nothing worse than chasing a customer for payment and then later on trying to pitch for business. It can put a strain on the relationship.

• Returning calls – if you cannot return a client call promptly, it helps to have someone make a courtesy call to let that person know you will be phoning in the near future. It gives the client a good impression of your business.

• Routine correspondence – if your client wants some literature, get your administrator to send it out. You would be surprised at how much time this sort of work can take up.

• Paying bills – get your administrator to sort out when bills are due, get them to write the checks and then you just sign them.

• Routine office duties – these include: emptying the bins, making cups of coffee, sorting out your post, filing, keeping the place tidy, reorganising your software CD’s, keeping the printer tray full and filling in forms that require your details.

7 common delegation disasters every beginner makes

Disaster #1: Failure to do it in writing
When I first started delegating tasks, I thought it would be easy. Just tell your staff what to do and they’ll do it. Simple - yes? Well, I’ve got news for you. It just doesn’t work like that.

I learnt that if I ask someone to do something, about 50% of the time they would do one of the following:
1. Misinterpret what you said and do it wrong
2. Silently disagree with what you said and do it differently, with their “twist”
3. Forget what you said and do what they could remember, without checking with you first
4. Forget to do it
5. Not do it on time
6. Not report back

I have not made this list up. All these happened the moment I started delegating. The better the staff the less problems you will get. Nevertheless, don’t count on not getting them, even when hiring the best.

The solution to misinterpretation and forgetting is to give them the task in writing and check their understanding of what you want. Ask them to tell you what they think you are looking for after looking at your written task list. Do this for the one-off projects, where they haven’t done this type of work for you in the past.

One example would be if you delegated some research that you wanted them to carry out on competitor prices. Outline exactly your criteria of what information you need from each competitor and which region you want to target.

Some of your tasks are daily routine stuff. For these I suggest you use a checklist which your administrator hands in at the end of the day. That way you can be sure each item is done if they tick it off.

Disaster #2: Failure to establish deadlines
Most tasks should have a deadline or they won’t get done. Make it realistic and make it known that you expect the deadline to be met.

Disaster #3: Recipient does not have sufficient skill
Be careful that what you’re delegating is not too difficult for your administrator to handle. Don’t assume they have the necessary skills just because you find it easy. Check that they know what they need to know. Give them training if they lack the skills or consider doing that task yourself.

Disaster #4: No insistence on written confirmation when completed
Am I going over the top with this? I don’t think so. You are in charge of your business and the bottom line stops with you. I have delegated important tasks and received verbal assurances that it has been done. When I’ve checked they hadn’t even been looked at!

There’s something more binding when an administrator confirms task completion in writing. They can’t turn around and say, “I didn’t tell you I’d done that” because you’d have it written down in their handwriting!

Disaster #5: Failure to assign a task priority
When running your business you are nearly always short on time. There are never enough hours in the day to implement all the wonderful things you want to do to improve your business and still earn enough money in the short term. The same applies to staff. Chances are they will have more work than they can comfortably handle. Yet you are still piling on the tasks for them to do.

I came across a solution to this and I want to share it with you. My administrator had a list of daily routine tasks and their priorities. But during the day I would ask them to do this and ask them to do that. They would write these items at the bottom of their task list. But they never got to the bottom! They had too much to do. Also, the administrator would just do the tasks they enjoyed and never get to the others in the list.

My solution was to assign a priority to each task, graded A to E, and ensure they did the items in priority order. That way the crucial daily tasks got done and so did my important additional tasks.

Disaster #6: Failure to confirm understanding
Check that who you delegate to knows exactly what you are looking for. Describe the outcome.

For example, its no good asking them to check up what your competitors are charging when you are really wanting: charges for each type of work, call out charges, day rates or do they work by the project only, etc.

Clear communication is key and you would be surprised at how often it gets messed up.

Disaster #7: Failure to check the work was done
Follow up! Yes, despite the fact you have received confirmation in writing, from time to time just check that its been done. You don’t know if someone has been covering up for one reason or another.

In addition, you may want to set up a database that tracks tasks that you delegate. Once you have received confirmation that the task has been done, update that task’s status in your database. You’ll be able to see what’s done and what’s outstanding. Otherwise, how will you know? Keep a track – it’s easy to do and time well spent.

What is your time worth?

Delegate any work that can be done by someone for less than $16 per hour. Why spend your time doing this sort of work when you can bill at a much higher rate?

If you get $65 per hour, spend one hour working and get someone else to spend 5 hours at $13 per hour (costing you $65) doing your delegable work. You’ve leveraged your time much more effectively this way.

I can hear some of you say, “Why only delegate work that can be done for $16 per hour? Why not delegate all my work that costs less than my hourly rate?” Well, yes, you are right to a certain degree.

But bear in mind the following:
• You will often not be paid for your travelling time to appointments.
• You will end up doing some work for free if you have made mistakes.
• You are rarely going to be booked up with no time to spare. You will usually have downtime.
• There are always tasks that you have to do.

This brings your average hourly earnings down. If you are extremely busy then go for it. Delegate nearly everything. Just be sensible and consider how much free time you have on your hands at that point in time.

How to find an administrator

Place a classified advert in your local paper. That is the best way to find an administrator. I’ve always done it this way and it works for me.

Who is ideal

You want someone with reasonable computer literacy, a good speaking voice and office experience. Avoid choosing the non-computer literate, as they will suck up your time with questions on how to use the computer. I’m not suggestion you don’t give them any training, just make sure they have the basics in place. They must know Windows and Word.

The ideal candidate would also have experience of your chosen accounting package. If you are weak in any one area (e.g. marketing) then try to employ someone who has some experience there. Make their skills compliment your own.

My advert, word for word. The following advert has constantly proved successful:

Part-time Administrator required for computer consultancy. Must be computer literate. $8 per hour. Call 01892 666545.

Lets look at why this works.

Part-time Administrator – you’ll often find that local papers make the first 2 words of a classified advert bold. Therefore, the above ad clearly signals what is offered to those scanning through looking for a job.

...required for computer consultancy – by putting this in you can get calls from those who want to get into the industry. They may be doing a degree in IT and want to get some work experience. Use them for administration (if experienced) or let them do some appointments or in house support. They would love the opportunity and you get them at low cost.

Must be computer literate – if you don’t put this in you will get lots of time consuming calls from those who just don’t have the skills you are looking for.

$8 per hour – I personally like to put the hourly rate in because I don’t want to spend time talking to potential staff who are looking for higher pay. I’m just too busy for that. So I screen them out by putting in my rate.

Expected advert response

In January, I tend to get my best response. One small advert in my local paper gets me around 25 – 35 enquiries at this time of the year. In mid-summer this goes down to about 10. Your results will vary according to where you’re advertising and the circulation figures of your local papers.

But believe me, when that advert comes out you’ll often find it ringing off the hook!

How to choose

You’ll get so many calls that you need to make an “enquiry sheet” before the advert comes out. These will record the details of each enquirer together with the criteria you are using to screen them.

You’ll want to record the following:
• Town of residency
• If they are currently employed
• Available hours
• How much work they are looking for (hours per week)
• Education
• Computer literacy broken down into Word, Excel, Access, Windows and Internet experience
• Speaking manner
• Date of birth
• Do they drive
• When they are looking to start work
• Date of enquiry

Create one of these enquiry sheets in Word or Publisher and print out 30. Hole punch them and put into a folder ready.